Mass Effect: Adept
by Adrian T. Starke
Summary: Set after "Breaking Free." Five years after the defeat of the reapers, the remnants of Cerberus are still causing trouble for the galaxy. When a task force sent to take out a group of Cerberus operatives stumble onto the splinter group's latest project, they will have to fight not just for survival, but for the safety of the entire galaxy.
1. The New Guy

Lesotho, South Africa – 2191 CE

The Alliance squad moved through the ruins of the small city Lesotho, laid to waste by the reapers five years ago. Its inhabitants were harvested by the machines, leaving no one alive to rebuild it. The former city was overgrown with vegetation; it looked like any ruin you would read about in history books, even though it had only been a few years. It was unsettling. Perhaps that was what made it so appealing as a hiding place.

Five years ago, Cerberus was all but stamped out by Commander Shepard himself. However, they're nothing if not persistent. It's been years, but there are still Cerberus agents hiding in the shadows, in the cracks, still causing trouble for anyone who fought against the reapers, anyone not human. The so called best of humanity had been reduced to guerilla tactics and terrorist attacks. There wasn't a lot of sympathy for the splinter group, even from those who originally supported them. Cerberus' attempted coup on the Citadel five years ago showed most of the galaxy their true colors.

The Alliance had gotten some intel from the Shadow Broker that a group of Cerberus loyalists were holed up in the Thaba-Tseka district in Lesotho. The Broker had been instrumental in finding the pockets of Cerberus troops still active after the Reaper War. However, it was still a slow going process. Much of the galactic communication system had to be completely overhauled in the aftermath of the war, the reapers having destroyed most of the FTL com buoy system. Pulling the galaxy back to order was not an easy task, but they eventually got there. The squad deployed to Thaba-Tseka was a small one; the Cerberus contingent they had tracked there wasn't a high priority one. Still, one less Cerberus squad means a lot less trouble for the rest of the galaxy.

The Squad was commanded by a Lieutenant Commander Ira Merchant. It was put together by Admiral Hannah Shepard about a year ago and was tasked with tracking and eliminating Cerberus cells. Merchant's team consisted specialists skilled in stealth and tracking. They were good at finding the enemy and taking them out.

The squad's drop shuttle was approaching their quarry. The soldiers grabbed their gear, getting ready for action. They were only a five man team including Commander Merchant. The squad was made up of several species at Admiral Shepard's insistence. One man, a turian, cricked his neck a bit; a habit of his before an op. He was a mountain of a man, made even larger by his heave armor. He was armed to the teeth with a Phaeston assault rifle, a Wraith shotgun, and an M-920 Cain.

"Low priority," he said. "Good job for the rookie to cut his teeth on."

"He might be new to our team, Carvis," said a female voice with a noticeable accent. "But he is no rookie."

A quarian woman sat next to him, checking her gear. She was lightly armored; obviously wearing and upgraded version of a quarian environmental suit. Thanks to the geth, of all things, the quarians were able to re-strengthen their immune systems. As such, they no longer needed to wear the face obscuring helmets.

"Oh really, Aryn? Who is he, then?"

"Trent Morgan. But most people just call him Morgue."

"Morgue?"

"Yeah, 'cause that's where he sends guys stupid enough to get in his way."

"What? Come on, how old is this guy, like twenty something?"

"22," said another female with a distinctive drell voice. "He was 17 when he trained at Grissom Academy."

She had an amber complexion to her, spotted by black sections on her face. However, she usually covered her face with a Recon Hood to increase her shot efficiency. She carried a Viper sniper rifle and a Shuriken machine pistol. The woman sat rather stoically, her hands folded in silent prayer. She always prayed before embarking on a mission.

"Grissom?" Carvis asked. "What wing?"

"Ascension. Under Jacqueline Naught," she clarified.

"Damn, Jerricah," Carvis breathed. He gripped his rifle a bit tighter at the mention of Jacqueline Naught.

"You really should read the personnel files of people you work with."

The three of them get quiet they hear someone coming into the passenger section of the shuttle. They thought it might be the commander, but it turned out to be a young man sporting a dirty blonde crewcut and icy blue eyes. It was the guy they were gossiping about. Trent Morgan, better known as "Morgue." He was clad in a full set of the Rosenkov Materials armor. The armor was renowned for the lights that adorned the armor. Morgue's set just happened to be jet black with red lights. The three soldiers were professionals, but they had to admit that he looked pretty intimidating.

He didn't say anything. He just sat down in preparation for the mission. The commander walked in shortly after. Merchant was a grizzled man who's seen a lot of action in his long service with the Alliance.

"Alright, you know the drill," he iterated. "There's a Cerberus cell holed up in those ruins and we're gonna burn 'em out."

"We have any idea how many?" Jerricah asked.

"Intell says about ten. However we know how slippery these bastards can be, so we should expect more."

"You can count on us, sir," Carvis affirmed.

"Good. As you've noticed, we've got a new recruit joining us on this. I assume Jerricah has informed you of his reputation, so I don't want any 'kick the new guy' bullshit. We're landing in ten, get your weapons primed and optimized."

The squad complied, pulling out their weapons to optimize them with ammo modifications. Jerricah dropped in armor piercing ammo, while Carvis went for incendiary. Aryn optimized her Kassa Locust and Plasma Shotgun with disrupter ammo, further enhancing the weapons' already formidable shield piercing ability. Morgue pulled out his Phalanx pistol. His hand suddenly flared with the familiar blue glow of a biotic mass effect field; he was modding his ammo with biotics. He holstered the pistol and did the same with his Vindicator assault rifle.

The shuttle landed about a minute after that. It had a state-of-the-art stealth system, utilizing both an emission sink and a tactical cloak, rendering it virtually invisible. The squad was able to deploy within the city without giving away their position. As soon as they hit the ground, Jerricah went ahead to scout the area. Initiating her tactical cloak, the drell went into one of the buildings and climbed up onto its roof to get a good look of the city.

"No sign of activity as of yet," she said quietly. "Will continue to survey the area."

"Watch your step, Jerricah," Merchant replied. "Some of these buildings look ready to collapse."

"Will do."

Carvis took point, keeping an eye out for any troops that tried to rush them. Aryn began taking a few scans with her omni-tool, searching for any clues that might lead them to Cerberus, as well as any surprises the terrorists might have left for them. With the city in such a state, there were a million places Cerberus could be hiding. Morgue brought up the rear, watching the squad's six. The city just felt wrong. The reapers left it an empty husk, mirroring what they did to its people. It was almost like hallowed ground; all the more reason to kick Cerberus out of there.

Jerricah surveyed the area with her rifle scope. She had the rifle fairly heavily modified. Precision scope, Mark V extended barrel, armor piercing ammo, and finely tuned concentration mod made the moderately powered gun into a highly effective weapon. Jerricah kept her targeting laser off so not to give away her position. The drell sniper was nothing if not professional. She was about ready to move when she caught a glimpse of movement. Her eidetic memory allowed her to confirm what she saw: a Cerberus Nemesis sighting in on her team's position from a window ten stories up. Jerricah fired once, scoring a hit in the center of the enemy sniper's chest. The shot was partially blocked by the target's kinetic barrier, which was whittled down to nothing. The Nemesis however took cover behind a wall before Jerricah could get off another shot.

"Sniper in a building 10 o'clock from your position," Jerricah said into her radio. "She's ten stories up and five windows from the right hand side and taking cover."

"Not for long," Morgue spoke. These were the first words the squad had heard him say since the mission started. He arced a biotic pull toward the Nemesis' position. Without any shields to counteract it, the Cerberus sniper was pulled out of cover and into Jerricah's line of fire. A shot to the head finishes her off. The biotic field suspending her soon died and dropped the Nemesis to the ground with a loud thud.

"Stay alert people!" Merchant ordered. "They know we're here now."

"We've got contacts!" Carvis yelled.

Several Cerberus troops popped out of cover and opened fire on the squad. However there was plenty in the way of cover in the ruined city. Carvis ducked behind a wrecked shuttle and fired a barrage of shots at the two assault troopers, setting both ablaze. Their armor bore most of flames, but it caused the troopers to flail about wildly, leaving them wide open to gun fire from Aryn and Merchant.

"Morgan, you've got two Guardians on your six," Jerricah warned.

"I got 'em."

Two Cerberus Guardians baring riot shields approach Morgue from behind. The biotic whipped around and pulled the shields out of their hands. He immediately drew his pistol and shot them both through the head, then twice more in the chest for good measure.

"Aryn! We've got a Combat engineer about to lay down a turret!" Merchant barked.

"On it!" Aryn confirmed. She fired up her omni-tool and fired an Overload micro-dart at the turret, which causes it to explode in the Cerberus engineer's face, taking down his shields and leaving him open for a head shot from Jerricah. "Nice shot!"

"Thank you, Aryn," Jerricah said.

"Centurions incoming!" Merchant boomed. "Team, on them! Take down their shields!"

Three Centurions came out of cover and fired at the squad. Aryn fired another Overload at the one in the middle, shorting out his shields and stunning the Centurion. Carvis followed up with a concussive shot, arcing the electrical charge to the other two, shorting out their shields as well. A volley of shots from Carvis, Merchant, and Aryn finish them off.

"Centurions are down," Carvis affirmed.

"Stay frosty people," Merchant ordered. "There might be more of 'em dug in somewhere."

He had been right. As soon as Merchant finished his sentence, a Phantom jumped out of a second story window directly toward him. Before she could touch him, she was struck by a biotic field, throwing her back a short distance. The Phantom landed on her feet, ready to attack again. Her barrier managed to withstand the few shots she couldn't avoid. Before she could mount any sort of counter attack, the Phantom was struck by another biotic blast. Morgue had three biotic orbs revolving around him, which he promptly hurled at the Phantom, killing her.

"Damn, kid. What kind of attack was that?" Carvis asked.

"Saw a volus do it once," Morgue answered. "I figured it out."

"Aryn, you picking up anything else?" Merchant questioned.

"No. Looks like we're clear," she replied.

"Alright, get on the long-range and report our progress. Jerricah, regroup."

"Sir," Jerricah replied as she made her way back down to the squad.

Aryn set up a sort of transmitter on the ground, an innovation made after the reaper war. It was a revolutionary long range communication device that could reach almost anywhere in the galaxy. It was co-developed by Samantha Traynor in collaboration with the rachni in order to create a cheaper and more efficient alternative to the quantum entanglement communicators originally designed by Cerberus. It had some long, scientific sounding name, so most people just called it the Long-Range. While it didn't need to be installed on a ship, it was still fairly bulky and had to be carried in a backpack. A small price to pay for lag free communication across the galaxy. As advanced as the Long-Range was, however, its signal was still able to be jammed.

"Ugh, looks like Cerberus put up a jamming device somewhere," Aryn informed.

"Well let's find it and disable it," Merchant said. "Carvis, Aryn, head back to the shuttle and get it prepped for launch."

Carvis and Aryn simply nodded and headed to the shuttle. The rest of the squad started scanning for any jamming devices or anything else that might be interfering with the Long-Range. Finding jamming devices such as this was fairly easy with current technology, if a bit tedious. However, finding the source of interference was quite easy: the source was huge. Merchant and Morgue moved in closer to try to find the epicenter of the interference, and to try and figure out what could be causing it. Before they could get three meters closer to it, the ground began to rumble, almost like it would when a thresher maw was about to surface. The Alliance soldiers didn't have a chance to speculate before the ground began to crack and split open. The ruined streets erupted, sending fragments of earth and asphalt raining down on the two humans who were trying to get to cover. The shock was enough to even throw Jerricah off balance. Before the dust could settle, something came crashing down between the two humans; something metallic. It was something that shouldn't even exist anymore.

It was a reaper.

It didn't look right, however. It was about three times the size of a harvester, which was still small for a reaper. The thing looked like it had been thrown together, like Cerberus had built it from scrapped reaper parts. It climbed its way out of the ground, causing small tremors with every step. The reaper let out a terrible, ear splitting noise, like metallic howl. There was hardly any time to react. There was a flash of red light, and there was a small creator where Merchant was standing.

Morgue pulled out his Vindicator and switched it to full auto, then unloaded an entire clip into the reaper. Morgue had modified the weapon to maximize thermal clip efficiency, so he was able to put a lot of rounds into the metal monstrosity. It might have been like flies hitting a windshield, but that didn't really matter. All that mattered was that there was a live reaper, and it needed to be dead. When his clip reached capacity, he threw out a singularity straight at the reaper's optics, and upon impact, violently dragged debris into the beast's vision, even cracking a few of its eyes. This gave Morgue the chance to fall back to Jerricah's position.

"We have to go!" He yelled to her.

"Goddess of Oceans… It's a reaper," she muttered.

"Which is why we need to go!"

Morgue grabbed Jerricah by the arm and the two of them started running. They had no chance of taking the thing on themselves; they needed Carvis's Cain, or if that didn't work, the shuttle's weapons. The reaper blindly fired a few wild shots, one just barely missing them. They were half way to the shuttle when a shot from the reaper hit the back end of it. The blast wasn't enough to completely destroy it, but it wasn't going to be flying again anytime soon. Fortunately Carvis and Aryn weren't inside when it was hit.

"Holy shit!" Carvis cursed.

"Keelah, is that a…?"

"Yes, now can you please shoot it in the face with your big-ass gun, Carvis?" Morgue shouted.

"Hell yes," the turian replied, pulling out the Cain. He took aim and after a brief warm up period after pulling the trigger, its high-explosive projectile went screaming toward the reaper, hitting it square in its already damaged optics. Fortunately, it looked like it didn't have any shields to protect it, meaning the shot blew a massive chunk out of its target. It struggled to keep standing, but it eventually fell, its optics flickering out. Carvis lowered his weapon, breathing heavily. He had Atlas heavy mechs in mind when he had brought the Cain for the mission, not a reaper. The turian had hoped to never see one again.

"Is it dead?" Aryn asked?

"Looks like it," Morgue answered. "We shouldn't stick around too long."

"Wait, where's Merchant?" Carvis questioned.

"He didn't make it," the human said after a brief pause.

"What?! What the hell happened?!" The turian looked ready to punch Morgue's lights out.

"It wasn't his fault, Carvis." Jerricah defended. "You have avenged the Commander's death."

"Alright… alright." Carvis calmed down a bit. "What's our status then?

"The shuttle's not going anywhere, that's for sure," Aryn said.

"The Long-Range was destroyed as well," Jerricah added.

"Great. This day just gets better and better," Carvis groaned.

The ground suddenly began to rumble again. This time felt worse than that last. It almost seemed like the whole city was shaking. Whatever was coming up was big, possibly a larger reaper. Multiple cracks started forming around the ruined city, some even big enough to further damage some of the buildings. The squad grabbed a few supplies from the shuttle and started running full tilt out of the city. They managed to get to a small crevasse to take cover from what was coming. They looked back toward the city just in time to see not one reaper surface, but many. Some were smaller than the first, some larger. All of them looked like the first: rebuilt from dead reaper parts. It was just another routine mission. Now, it was a nightmare come to life. Morgue got up to get a better look at the small reaper army. Only one thing when through is mind as he looked upon the terrible sight.

"… Fuck."


	2. Amonkira

The Squad watched as the reapers left the city. Some of them took flight, although a bit shakily. Others simply walked out, perhaps due to incomplete construction. They lumbered away, seemingly unaware of the Squad's presence, or they had more important matters to attend to. In any case, the reapers left the city unguarded, and the team's shuttle along with it. If nothing else it gave them somewhere to lay low to figure out what had just happened. They moved in as quickly as they could while still being stealthy. The shuttle was still in one piece; at least it wasn't any more damaged than it already was. They would need to salvage anything they could from it.

"We'll need the Shuttle's Long Range first," Aryn said. "If we can contact the Alliance those things won't stand a chance."

"Problem is those reapers give off some serious interference," Morgue pointed out. "We'll need to get somewhere we can get a signal off."

"There's an old com station about 12 kilometers west of here. We might be able to boost the signal there."

"The reapers were headed northwest. There's no way they won't see it and blow it to hell." Carvis said.

"So far it is the only plan we have," Jerricah pointed out.

"Maybe not. There's an STG extraction team on standby if we didn't report in. If we rendezvous with them we stand a better chance."

"Good call," Morgue said. "What was their position?"

"They were set up half a clique north of the city. We need to get there fast."

"Then let's get going."

Aryn finished uninstalling the shuttle's Long Range. Jerricah gathered up rations and thermal clips while Carvis and Morgue kept watch. Along with the supplies she was looking for, Jerricah found something of Morgue's: a black Deathmask with read eye lights. The biotic was surprised that it survived virtually unscathed. He took it, figuring it would probably come in handy. His already intimidating armor was made even more so with the addition of the helmet.

As soon as they got everything they could carry with them without getting slowed down, the squad detonated the shuttle to ensure it didn't fall into enemy hands. Once that was done, they moved out toward the STG unit's position. The city looked worse off than before. The reapers smashed through anything in their path out of town. To think this was just to get out of a city. Before the reaper invasion, it wouldn't have been out of place to wonder what kind of destruction they could wreak. As it is, they knew exactly what the reapers could do. No one would forget about it anytime soon. Needless to say, they weren't about to let happen all over again.

It didn't take long for the squad to start closing in on the STG unit's position. It looked like they were settled in a rocky valley. Lots of cover, easily defensible. It should have been a relief when they found the unit. It wasn't. Salarian blood stained the ground. Some of the bodies were charred beyond recognition, some were torn to pieces. It was ugly.

"Damn…" Carvis said.

"The reapers must have found them," Jerricah surmised.

"Spread out. Look for survivors."

Truth be told, they didn't expect to find any. The reapers are nothing if not efficient. Of course, nothing about that day had gone the way they thought it would, so they might just get lucky and find someone alive. The STG team's shuttle, however, was completely pancaked. It looked like a reaper had just stepped on it.

Morgue thought he heard something moving deeper in the canyon. He moved out of eyeshot of the others to check it out. After he climbed down, was suddenly jumped by an uncloaking Cerberus operative, likely left there by the reapers to take care of anyone snooping around. He brought a combat knife down at Morgue, who barely managed to block the attack with his rifle. The blade pierced through the gun, but was lodged in, letting Morgue rip the knife out of his hand. The operative started to unsling his own rifle, but Morgue was able to grab it and wrench it from his hands, kicking him in the gut to get some distance from him. The biotic brought the weapon to fire at his attacker, too distracted by the heat of the moment to really determine what kind of gun it was. He squeezed the trigger briefly, causing the weapon to fire two or three rapid shots that grazed the Cerberus operative in the arm just before he cloaked again. Morgue's eyes darted around, looking for any trace of his attacker. Without any weapons, the operative was going to need to get in close to try and finish the job. That would be fairly easy while he was cloaked. The operative came within four feet of him before someone grabbed him by the shoulder and jammed an omni-blade through his chest before breaking it off then blasting it clear through with a biotic punch. Morgue fired a few rounds into the Cerberus operative's head for good measure.

"Who are you?" Morgue asked.

"Sergeant Noran Vinaris, STG," he answered. "I… I'm the last of your extraction team."

"Morgan, what's going on?" Jerricah asked as she approached them.

"Apparently he's our back up," Morgue replied.

"Just him? That doesn't bode well. We counted the bodies. There weren't enough of them."

"My unit… the reapers took some of them," Noran said. "Possibly for indoctrination or conversion. Neither possibility is very pleasant."

"Yeah," Morgue said. He walked over to his Vindicator and picked it up. The knife had pierced the gun's eezo core, making it pretty much useless. "Damn. I liked that rifle."

"Well, it seems you found a replacement," Jerricah pointed out.

"Guess so." Morgue finally took a good look at the gun he grabbed from the Cerberus operative. It looked like an M-96 Mattock, but it had a silver-white paint job. The gun seemed to be a slightly older weapon: it still had the integrated scope from earlier models. It also fired in full auto, a trait shared by the Harrier Assault rifle. The Harrier was a Mattock modified for full auto, keeping the Mattock's accuracy and stopping power. The Alliance had acquired the design for the Harrier and improved upon it, making it more efficient in managing waste heat. Morgue had actually wanted to get one, but it was an N7 specialist weapon, so requisitioning one would have been fairly difficult. This weapon, however, seemed to be a precursor to the Harrier. Furthermore, it didn't have the logos that Cerberus seemed to love putting on everything they had.

"I'll have to take a look at that," Noran said.

"What for?" Morgue asked.

"If you insist on using that, I'll need to sweep it for bugs. Cerberus has quite a reputation for hidden surveillance. I'll also try to bring it up to Alliance standards." The man brought up an excellent point. The Cerbs put bugs anywhere they could fit them. Morgue was going to need a primary weapon, and he found it satisfying using one of Cerberus' weapons against them.

"Here you go, then." Morgue handed the weapon over, but not before ejecting its thermal clip. The human wasn't sure if he could trust Noran yet.

It looked like the weapon was a bit behind the times. It was still using an older heat management system. After the reaper invasion, a hybrid of thermal clip system and the older in-gun cooling system had been implemented in weapon design. Guns could now cool down as they did before, but the user could still eject clips to manually cool down their weapon. The new system allowed for more flexibility, allowing soldiers to conserve ammo if they needed. Generally, the cool down function was used if only a few shots had been fired, after fire fights, or if the user was down to their last clip. Overall, the hybrid system made weapons much more efficient. The Mattock in particular was a very effective gun, but kicked up a lot of waste heat, drastically reducing the number of shots that could be fired. If Noran could bring up to current standards, it would be a pretty vicious weapon, especially in Morgue's hands. Not that the young biotic needed a lethal weapon to be deadly.

It was starting to get dark. Carvis had the squad move to a more secure location to set up camp. They couldn't risk Cerberus getting a jump on them in the canyon, and they figured that Noran would appreciate getting out of eyeshot of his fallen comrades. They found a small, rocky valley that provided anonymity and cover. Once camp was set up, Carvis had Aryn work with Noran to try and contact the Alliance. However their attempts were fruitless. Any signal they tried send was jammed by reaper interference. It was almost unreal how they could jam the Long Range from such a distance. Noran kept working on the Harrier that Morgue had taken off the Cerberus trooper. He needed to keep himself busy.

"Teh… So much for Cerberus being on the bleeding edge of technology," the salarian said. "There are a dozen things that could have been easily improved on this weapon."

"I guess they've been too busy trying to revive the reapers," Aryn replied.

"Yes. Damn Cerberus bastards."

"How did they even pull it off?"

"Have a theory on that. The reapers were basically commanded by a central intelligence: The Catalyst. Makes sense, since the reapers are similar to the old geth configuration. Each reaper had hundreds or thousands of programs within their constructs. The Crucible corrupted the Catalyst, leading to its breakdown. Without it, the reapers couldn't maintain cohesion between their programs and basically thought themselves to death."

"So, you think that Cerberus has somehow brought the Catalyst back online?" Aryn asked.

"More likely they created a new central intelligence. With that, building their physical structures would be relatively simple. There's enough pieces left over from the war to work with."

"Why would they do this?"

"Maybe to regain some of their formal power, perhaps they are still indoctrinated and are attempting to resurrect their masters. Too many unknowns to judge for sure." Noran continued working on the gun. There was a lot he needed to take his mind off of.

Aryn noticed it and decided to stay quiet for now. As a quarian, she came to be accustomed to reading body language, a trait that hasn't been dimmed by her liberation from her mask. She could tell there was more eating away at him than the loss of his squad, no matter how hard or how well he hid it. If he wanted to talk about it, she would let him, but she wouldn't go digging for it. That would just be rude.

"So this squad of yours, how long have you been operating?" Noran asked.

"About six months," Aryn answered. "Admiral Shepard put us together after Cerberus started becoming a problem again. Until now, we thought they were nothing more than a bunch of guerrillas trying to be big shots in the galaxy. Guess they were more clandestine than we thought."

"If they were able to build reapers in secret, I would assume so."

"The alliance wanted a specialist team to smoke out Cerberus. We bust up the big operations they have running. This was supposed to be a milk run for our new recruit."

"From what I've read from his file, I think a "milk-run" is unnecessary for him. He was fairly effective in the reaper war. Helped fend off Cerberus and Reaper forces from a critical supply depot."

"Yeah, I read about that too. He's pretty impressive."

"Indeed. You have specialization in this squad?"

"Communications and tech. Though, the reapers have pretty much blocked all our transmissions. I was thinking the old com station nearby could help us get a signal out, but the reapers have probably already found that too." Aryn was starting to feel a little useless. As a com specialist, it was her job to make sure they had a clear line of communication to their superiors, and they didn't have that. It was a pretty big black mark on her record.

"Reapers probably using it to boost their jamming frequencies," Noran surmised. "We would have to disable it and any reapers near it to get a clean signal."

"Well that's problematic. We only have the one Cain. Hardly enough to mount an assault against reapers."

"You'd be surprised at what you can do with one heavy weapon." Noran finished modifying the gun, reassembling it to working order.

"We need a plan, that's for sure." Aryn rubbed her forehead. She had no idea how they were going to even get out of there alive. The quarian shook the thought from her head and decided to change the subject. "You don't see a lot of salarian biotics."

"Yes we are quite rare and rather prized," Noran replied. "We tend to find work in espionage, like in STG. The higher ups don't like to risk biotics in frontline units."

Jerricah was set up at the edge of camp, acting as a look out. So far, it seemed that neither Cerberus nor the reapers were aware of their position. Carvis set up a heat lamp; a technological alternative for a fire. The valley they were settled didn't really provide them with much in the way of firewood. The depression was shallow, but deep enough to keep the light from the lamp from being too visible. The turian soldier sat in front of the small source of heat and light and started to look over his M-920 Cain. It seemed like they were going to be needing it, so he wanted to make sure it had enough power to and ammo to stay useful. The Cain has always been somewhat of an ammo hog, chewing through power cells with a single shot. It took some pretty extensive modifications in order to allow it to be fired even twice without needing to replace the cells. Morgan took off his helmet and set it aside, taking Carvis' lead and looking over his Phalanx pistol. He had modified it with a heavy barrel. The added power and weight of the barrel necessitated the use of ultralight materials to even out the weapon. With such a combination, it was wise to keep up regular maintenance.

The two of them kept a somewhat awkward silence as they worked. Neither of them were exactly in a talkative mood, given the circumstances. Of course, once they inevitably reached the end of the maintenance of their weapons, they were left with an uncomfortable silence between them. They were better at shooting things than they were at talking. The silence, however, was enough to prompt them to break it.

"How long have you been at this, Carvis?" Morgan asked.

"I've been on the squad for about eight months. Before that, I served in a platoon in the turian military.

"Cerberus has been making trouble since the war ended, but they only recently started escalating. Now I guess we know why." The turian still couldn't really wrap his head around what was happening.

"They're pretty bold when they got their reaper overlords backing them up." Morgan spat the words. A hatred of Cerberus had been ingrained in him since his days in Grissom Academy. His teacher made sure of that.

"It would seem so. Merchant… he was in charge since the squad was put together about a year ago. Didn't think he'd go out like that."

"Sorry."

"Not your fault. It was a damn reaper. Not much you could have done."

"Yeah. With him gone, the squad's gonna need a leader." There hadn't been much time to discuss the topic.

"I suppose so. After Merchant, Jerricah's been on the squad the longest, nearly a year."

"A year, huh? People kinda come and go on this team, I take it."

"Let's just say things don't always go as planned."

"Right." The awkward moment had become slightly more awkward. Morgue was never really much of a smooth talker. In fact, he didn't really talk much at all.

"In any case, Jerricah has never shown any ambition to become squad leader."

"Why not?"

"I dunno. It seems personal. You'll have to ask her." Morgue cocked his head slightly at that.

"What makes you think she'd tell me?"

"She seems to have taken a notice of you." The human decided to leave it at that. He would just have to ask Jerricah about it later. He did think it was a little weird that she was the only one that didn't call him by his nickname.

"Well, if she won't do it, I suppose you're the next best candidate," Morgue said.

"Lookin' like that," Carvis replied. "Never actually lead a squad before."

"Doesn't seem to be much of a choice here."

The turian nodded. He had been on missions that had gone south before, but nothing like this. There were a whole lot of unknowns in this operation, one of them being whether or not he could actually lead his team out of this mess. However, there was no room for doubt in this situation. Doubt would just bog him down and demoralize his comrades. He had to be strong, for him and for them.

Morgue decided to go and check on Jerricah, figuring she must have been starting to get tired, given how late it was. He was also a bit curious about what Carvis said. He hadn't really noticed her giving him any particular attention. Though, she was the kind of person that could observe someone without being noticed. If she couldn't do that, she wouldn't have been much of a sniper. Still, Morgue had his doubts about it. They've only known each other for a few hours. Not much time for him to make much of an impression. She could just be wary about the new guy. He didn't even really think that he would get any answers from her, at least not right away. At the very least, he could take the next shift.

"Hey…" That was all he could really think to say.

"Have you come to relieve me?" she asked. Morgue just nods. "I can handle this for another hour before fatigue impairs my abilities."

"Gotcha. Still, I think I'll just back you up. Nothing else to do."

"Very well." The whole time she had been talking to him, she didn't so much as give him a brief glance. She was practically glued to her rifle's scope. Not that she was being rude. It was more like she was far too focused to look up from what she was doing. Professional. "How are you doing? I can't imagine this has been a very pleasant first mission with us."

"Compared to the reaper invasion, this is pretty tame."

"You don't fear much, do you?"

"Just enough to keep me alive."

"That is very wise."

Morgue couldn't help but think that the drell seemed quite serene, despite what had been happening. Of course, he himself pointed out that this relatively small group of deformed reapers was nothing like the ones that had attacked the galaxy five years ago. Still, it was no less a rather dire situation. As far as the squad knew, they were the only ones who knew about the rebuilt reapers, and the only ones close enough to do anything about it. If these reapers could indoctrinate, and got to a populated area, they could become a serious threat. Even in the face of that, Jerricah didn't seem to let it affect her. Hopefully that would rub off on the rest of them.

"You are curious about something," Jerricah said. All Morgue wondered how she could even tell that without even looking at him.

"Carvis said you've been on the squad for 2 years, but you don't have any ambitions to lead it. Any reason why?"

"I prefer serving to leading."

"That have something to do with what you did before this?"

"Yes. I served a as a body guard that specialized in, long distance protection. I would spot threats and either report them or eliminate them."

"Ah. Guess you served under the conscript." Jerricah's head moved ever so slightly in Morgue's direction.

"You know of the conscript?" the drell asked.

"I read a lot. How'd you get into this line of work?"

"… Before the war, I contracted Kepral's Syndrome. I was given about a year to live."

"Damn. Well, seein' as you're still with us, I take it you got yourself cured."

"I was one of the volunteers who tested it. It was like a great darkness was lifted from my soul. I focused less on my past and looked toward my future."

"Surviving a disease and a war does seem to have that sort of effect on people."

"Yes." That was the last thing that was said between them. They remained silent until Jerricah decided to retire for the night, leaving Morgue to take watch.

"Good night," Morgue said. Jerricah looked back at the human, holding her gaze for a few seconds then replied…

"May Amonkira guide you this night." She turned and headed over to Carvis. Morgue made a mental note to look up Amonkira on the extranet when they got out of this mess.


End file.
